What would Jesus Tom DeLay do?

At this crucial point in the recount, when any misstep or momentary wavering of resolve could cost Christine Gregoire the election, Democrats must pause and ask themselves: “What would Tom DeLay do?”

The state GOP knows the answer, and that’s why after weeks of attacking Democrats for dragging the election into the courts, they have predictably lawyered up and filed a motion in Pierce County Superior Court seeking a restraining order to prevent King County Elections from verifying the signatures on the 573 wrongly rejected absentee ballots. Yup, all their talk about the “will of the people” was merely that.

By now it should be clear that Republicans are out to win at any cost, and to that end, GOPolitburo Chair Chris Vance continues to spew the kind of Orwellian doublespeak that would make the bug-man from Texas proud:

“If King County moves forward we will never know the truth about those ballots,” said Republican State Party Chairman Chris Vance. “We want to get some answers about these very suspicious ballots.”

But it is the truth about those ballots — the votes recorded on them — that Chairman Vance desperately wants to conceal… for we all know that if those votes are counted, Dino Rossi’s prospects would dangle more precariously than a one-cornered chad.

And so Democrats must ask themselves… “what would Tom DeLay do?”… because that is surely the question that Chris Vance is now asking himself. Would he fret over disenfranchising voters with the governorship hanging in the balance? Would he hesitate to unfairly malign an opponent or a public employee or a colleague or even a friend, if it would work to his political advantage? Would he stop at bending, stretching or disregarding the truth, if that’s what it took to win?

Democrats should not kid themselves about how far Chris Vance and his party would go to win this election. If he could halt King County’s recount, he would… if he could throw out the county’s ballots entirely, he’d blithely point to the state’s remaining votes as evidence of a landslide and the mandate that goes with it.

What would Tom DeLay do? Chris Vance is already doing it, and Democrats must be relentlessly and unapologetically aggressive in fighting him for every last damn vote.

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Comments

A: If your County elections staff did not do everything right, your vote should not count. Each of these ballots would be suspect unless the County proves that the ballot was continuously secure since received. Considering their terrible track record in this recount, they may not be able to prove this. That’s the risk you take by living and voting in King County: if the inept crew under exec Sims screwed up, you paid the price by losing your vote.

Yes, that is the GOP’s strategy. They can’t accept a Gregoire victory or the counting of legitimate ballots. So they’re rushing to court. After they attacked the Democrats for doing so.

Just like the Democrats’ lawsuit, I think the GOP’s lawsuit is headed out the window. That’s not going to stop them, though, from claiming the election is illegitimate.

In fact, some of them want to start over. Munro is pushing for a new election in February. Good idea, Ralph! Let’s leave Gary Locke in place for a third of the legislative session! Does he honestly think that the Democratic stronghold of Seattle will somehow refrain from turning out and voting for Gregoire after what has happened? Seattle is the most populous city in the state.

There’s also reports of another 162 ballots that King County forgot about in the Seattle Times this morning.

That does not surprise me. King County is a big county. These are paper ballots being stored in a mammoth warehouse. Some are bound to be erroneously thrown out, get lost or be misplaced. Usually, it wouldn’t matter that much. Now it does.

I misplace and lose things frequently: whether it be financial records, a magazine, labels, or notes, I can’t always keep track of my papers. I usually do end up finding what I lost or misplaced, though. And that is what is happening in King County right now – finding papers. Of course the GOP is angry. Every new crop of ballots is like a knife in the back to them because it decreases the chance that Dino will win. They ignore the fact that it’s fairly easy for papers to get misplaced or lost.

Would they be howling about all of this if it was benefiting Rossi? Of course not.

So they cast it as illegitimate. Considering that their strategy is winning at any cost, that’s not surprising.

Andrew- ballots do NOT, in most counties, get misplaced, strewn around, etc. No such problems in Pierce or Spokane- one such incident, found in the last recount, in Snohomish- and the seven provisional ballots found in Whatcom. Then there is the one ballot found jammed in a counting machine in Pierce, that the Canvassing Board will address today- a little different than the other incidents.

Repeated incidents in King now starting to strain credibility. This last batch appears to have been in a secure location, as has all but the 22, but at this point I would go with one of Chris Vance’s request, as punishment for King County Elections Staff-

They get to spend the weekend preparing a written report on each ballot establishing the chain of custody.

That is akin to writing on the blackboard 735 (573 plus 162) times- “I will not fail to scan in signatures. I will not misplace ballots. Under penalty of summary firing from my cozy county job, I will not screw up another King County election.”

Goldy- going to the mattresses so the two gangs of thugs can fight over this election only further destroys the ability of any eventual winner to govern. I am sorry you are advocating LBJ tactics- shall the D’s up the ante and shoot to kill? No- we HAVE to get this mess straightened out. There is no provision for a run-off. Under the conteste elections statute, a court can order this election annulled as hopeslessly screwed up, but who really wants to go through the fight of establishing the groundrules for a new election- and who really thinks that is a satisfactory answer. While partisans howl, a great number of voters will stay home out of frustration with the whole process. And when the number of votes cast in the new election is substantially lower than those cast in the current one…?

This election does NOT belong to the two parties, or to the partisans. It belongs to the great mass of the voters who have two messages to deliver-

2) Elections Administrators, especially in King County- slow down, take a deep breath- THEN GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER AND GET IT DONE RIGHT!!!

Finally, Goldy- again, give up the mattresses. Come back from the dark side. Listen to your better angel. Retake the high ground. Let NO ONE steal this election, but keep thundering against those who would.

Personally, I would just assume be tortorous and make Chris Vance participate in “The Biggest Loser” sequel where according to the commericials you have to lose weight the most to win…

That said, Andrew makes a sound case for ordinary human beings. The problem is, election officials aren’t supposed to be ordinary human beings… they’re supposed to not be finding ballots like they’re no tommorrow. I also hope to God Almighty that if the shoe were on the other foot, I’d be on Gregoire’s side in this – and call for a new election.

I believe that today’s judicial ruling will put an end to the magic ballot carpet…

BTW: I have recommended this blog to a lot of people, including THE Marummy herself.

It is actually very sad the inept counting the first and second times. If the job would have been done properly Christine would already be certified and all of us would be on with our lives. Even the NecroCons over at unsoundblowtics.

There are those who can deal in truth and those who proffer their own theories of the truth.

The truth lies on the face of all the ballots legally cast in this election – and NOWHERE ELSE. All the huan error, all the missed ballots stuck in machines, left under the tray, counted twice, never counted at all, all those are just the errors in a three million item inventory.

THE TRUTH, the whole tructh is on the face of ALL those ballots- no where else. We are growin weary of the process, the time delay, the partisin hacks bellowing and posuring STILL, the truth needs to be told.

I want the truth. Read the face of every ballot. That is why the Democrats ponied up a million. They have complied with the law, paid the bucks, and are willing to deal with all the errors from all the counties. ONWARD to the truth.

Bob- the crux is “all the ballots legally cast in this election”- yes, read the faces of THOSE ballots, and let it end. But, damn it, which are THOSE ballots. And then, making sure each of THOSE ballots is counted- once. King County has muddied the waters once too many times, and the waters need to be cleared- and Dean Logan cannot clear them. Those waters have to be cleared by two decent men, one from each party, who are the OTHER two members of the King County Canvassing Board- Dwight Pelz and Dan Satterberg.

Put all information before them. Let them come to agreement. Then move on with our lives…

Jim – From all the studies I’ve read about voting in America, legal ballots are routinely tossed aside (for many reasons), and as Goldy said, it usually doesn’t affect the outcome. This hyper-close election is highighting flaws at what I think we can all agree are the “margins of error” in our collective methods for voting and vote counting.

Nothing I’ve seen feels “new” or makes me feel the election is tainted. I fully expected surprises like a stack of ballots being discovered to be counted twice, newly discovered stacks of uncounted secured ballots, and ballots improperly excluded by one or more election workers. To me these discoveries feel like the hand-recount is working.

And yes, I fully expect their to be a media-conducted recount after the election where we discover, in even greater detail, where the election process has cracks, holes, flaws, etc.

I guess you could say that I’m an optimist about this and trust that with the intense level of scrutiny by partisan and non-partisan observers, there’s even less chance of error as the recount goes on.

jcricket, Here is the quandary that King’s screwups have put the state into: Why should we believe that there’s no funny business connected to any of these 573 (or whatever) ballots? Were any of them sealed AFTER the first or second vote count?

The County has to have proof of security for each ballot. Even that will not satisfy many partisans. It will not really “satisfy” me but at least will reduce my blood pressure.

The multitude of problems in King County have cast the appearance of ineptitude, at the very least, on the way the votes are being counted there. Naturally enough, Republicans are concerned that errors are going to swing the vote against their guy. Democrats want to count “every vote”, regardless whether they’re valid or not, because they figure those questionable votes will likely favor their candidate. If the chain of custody has been lost on some votes, then there is a potential of vote tampering. If the chain of custody is intact, and the votes are legally valid, then, by all means, count them. Shreaking and invective do not contribute to the debate.

zip – I don’t disagree with you, but I believe the screams would be a lot louder and would have come from more people than just Chris Vance if the security of the 573 was in question. I’m sure those questions have been asked and the media would be all over it if those were in question.

As an example, I give you the reporting about the 22 ballots found at various polling places. Every media account of those has been followed by the words “unsecured” and “at the bottom of a barrel”. That brings their security into question for me.

I think Dean Logan does need to answer why these 172 ballots in the “cage” weren’t found with the 573. I have see no reason to doubt the 573 were properly secured with all the reports I’ve seen about them and the time that has passed since their discovery (time that would have offered the opportunity to show a lack of chain of custody if there was a problem).

I’m going to reply to some of your comments in bulk, but first I want to clarify something about this blog entry. I wasn’t suggesting that Democrats should do what Tom DeLay would do. I’m suggesting that Chris Vance would, and thus Dems must prepare themselves to respond accordingly.

We should not dismiss Vance’s rhetoric and actions simply as outrageous bluster… it is outrageous bluster following a blueprint for national one-party domination that DeLay successfully pioneered in Texas. Just because Vance appears foolish and untempered to us, doesn’t make him any less dangerous. Many of his statements are eerily fascistic. (And no… I’m not calling him a nazi.)

That said…

If your County elections staff did not do everything right, your vote should not count.

Zip… fortunately, that ill-conceived sentiment is expressed nowhere in statute, as it would inevitably lead to a cynically ironic form of electoral fraud… disenfranchising voters through intentional incompetence: “Ooops… we left these 10,000 ballots from Republican strongholds unsecured… guess we can’t count them.”

Come back from the dark side.

Jim… I’m not succumbing to the dark side, but it would be suicidal to let down my light saber while battling Darth Vance.

It is actually very sad the inept counting the first and second times. If the job would have been done properly Christine would already be certified and all of us would be on with our lives.

Jim P… yes… whatever mistakes were made at King County Elections, we must remember that they all disadvantaged Gregoire, both in the actual vote count and in the PR wars.

Here is the quandary that Kingâ€™s screwups have put the state into: Why should we believe that thereâ€™s no funny business connected to any of these 573 (or whatever) ballots? Were any of them sealed AFTER the first or second vote count?

As I have repeatedly stated, the 573 (now 723) had been secured with the rest of the rejected absentees (as evidenced by the fact that they had to go into the “cage” today to retrieve the rest of them), and they are all still sealed inside their envelopes, so tampering would have been impossible. Just because Vance keeps calling them “suspicious” doesn’t make them so.

If the chain of custody has been lost on some votes, then there is a potential of vote tampering. If the chain of custody is intact, and the votes are legally valid, then, by all means, count them. Shreaking and invective do not contribute to the debate.

Actually, I’ve been quite impressed by the level-headed debate in this thread. But then, Chuck and Cynical seem to have given up all hope and abandoned us for friendlier climes.

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